ninjafoo Ng

A Second Life on Linux

Monday, February 27, 2006

Frustrated Character Animator?

The Second Life Herald have just reported on a free tool to create and edit BVH files, that is, to create and edit character animations as used by avatars in Second Life. Essentially it's a very light weight alternative to stumping up for Poser.

Big deal! I hear you say, we don't need you to tell us what the herald has on the front page. But what the Herald doesn't mention is that you can download Avimator in Windows, Mac and Linux flavours!

Now, I am well aware that it's possible to do this kind of magic in blender, but unless you know blender it might as well be magic.

Second Life forum post with more information, as usual you have to be logged in :)

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

DIY Easy Life!

I wouldn't usually post about RL, but this is one everyone needs to remember.

BIG TIP : When your going to paint a room, get a colour swatch book and choose your colours IN the room your going to be painting. Check your colours look right at different times of the day, maybe even buy a sample pot and slap some paint on the walls.

We have just finished decorating our dining room, and because we picked our colours in the shop, we had a room that was light yellow (the intended colour) between 9AM and 10:30AM, gradually turning NHS green as the day progressed.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Second Life Linux!

Linden labs have just released an alpha Linux Second Life client. Be sure to check out the forum. As this client logs onto the main world you use it as your own risk. That said, aside from a couple of minor glitches it looks like Linden labs have pulled a blinder with their very first offering.

The only problems I have found so far have been very minor, more annoying than anything else. There is no audio. The appearance editor will give you a blue head and full beard (so have a Windows client handy to put things like this right - if you dont have Windows, I think it will run with Wine). And you will want to edit your settings.ini file after your first run and update the 'GraphicsCardMemorySetting' option to the correct amount. A thread has been started on the forums with performance tips for the Linux client, YMMV.